A Theological and Philosophical Journey Through the American Christian Landscape

May 14, 2012February 21, 2013

Thought Experiment: Carl Rogers and Post-Modernism

It has been a very busy semester for me here at Yale, and as a result I have been pretty inactive in the blogging world of late. I have several partially completed posts in the line-up for the future, but as a first foray back to the blog, thought I’d throw up some stuff I’ve been reading lately in the hopes of starting some discussion.

I am currently engaged in the final research and writing push for a paper on philosophy that I’m excited about because I think it will integrate a lot of things I am interested in the ares of hermeneutics, existentialism, and psychology.

A significant part of my research the last few days has been focused on one of the leading psychologists of the last century, a fellow by the name of Carl Rogers, one of the founding figures of a movement known as humanistic psychology which attempts to move psychology away from the supposed scientific rigor of behaviorism and reconnect with philosophy, especially the existentialist philosophy being written in Europe around the mid-twentieth Century.

If most of that introduction was meaningless to you, that’s fine. I find this stuff very exciting, but I’m an odd duck, I know.

What I’ve posted below is a lengthy selection from an essay Rogers wrote in 1978 titled “Do We Need ‘A’ Reality?” This is perhaps one of the most succinct and compelling presentations of what a post-modern worldview might look like that I have read, and I want to do a little thought experiment with it.

Experiment might not be the right word, as I think about it, but work with me.

What I’m very interested in is how other people react to this passage. I’ve included very briefly some of my own thoughts below the quote, but I’m mostly interested in your reactions. What do you agree with? What do you disagree with? Where is Rogers right on the money? Where is he lost at sea? Is his vision attainable or is he too idealistic? Let me know what you think:

I, and many others, have come to a new realization. It is this: The only reality I can possibly know is the world as I perceive and experience it as this moment. The only reality you can possibly know is the world as you perceive and experience it as this moment. And the only certainty is that those perceived realities are different. There are as many “real worlds” as there are people! This creates a most burdensome dilemma, one never before experienced in history.

Form time immemorial, the tribe or the community or the nation or the culture has agreed upon what constitutes the real world. To be sure, different tribes or different cultures might have held sharply different world views, but at least there was a large, relatively unified group which felt assured in its knowledge of the world and the universe, and knew that this perception was true. So the community frowned upon, condemned, persecuted, even killed those who did not agree, who perceived reality differently. Copernicus, even though he kept his findings secret for many years, was eventually declared a heretic. Galileo established proof of Copernicus’s views, but in his seventies he was forced to recant his teachings. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in 1600 for teaching that there were many worlds in our universe.

Individuals who deviated in their perception of religious reality were tortured and killed. In the mid-1800’s, Ignaz Semmelweis, an intense young Hungarian physician-scientist, was driven insane by his persecutors because he made the then absurd claim that childbed fever, that dread scourge of the maternity room, was carried from one woman to another by invisible germs on the hands and instruments of the doctors. Obvious nonsense, in the terms of the reality of his day. In our American Colonies, those who were even suspected of having psychic powers were considered witches and were hanged or crushed under great stones. History offers a continuing series of examples of the awful price paid by those who perceive a reality different from the agreed-upon real world. Although society has often come around eventually to agree with its dissidents, as in the instances I have mentioned, there is no doubt that this insistence upon a known and certain universe has been part of the cement that holds a culture together.

Today we face a different situation. The ease and rapidity of worldwide communication means that every one of us is aware of a dozen “realities”; even though we may think some of them absurd (like reincarnation) or dangerous (like communism), we cannot help but be aware of them. No longer can we exist in a secure cocoon, knowing that we all see the world in the same way.

Because of this change, I want to raise a very serious question: Can we today afford the luxury of having “a” reality? Can we still preserve the belief that there is a “real world” upon whose definition we all agree? I am convinced that this is a luxury we cannot afford, a myth we dare not maintain. Only once in recent history has this been fully and successfully achieved. Millions of people were in complete agreement as to the nature of social and cultural reality– agreement brought about by the mesmerizing influence of Hitler. This agreement about reality nearly marked the destruction of Western culture. I do not see it as something to be emulated.

In Western culture during this century– especially in the United States– there has also been an agreed-upon reality of values. This gospel can be stated very briefly: “More is better, bigger is better, faster is better, and modern technology will achieve all three of these eminently desirable goals.” But now that credo is a crumbling disaster in which few believe. It is dissolving in the smog of pollution, the famine of overpopulation, the Damocles’ sword of the nuclear bomb. We have so successfully achieved the goal of “a bigger bang for a buck” that we are in danger of destroying all life on this planet.

Our attempts, then, to live in the “real world” which all perceive in the same way have, in my opinion, led us to the brink of annihilation as a species. I will be so bold as to suggest an alternative.

It appears to me that the way of the future must be to base our lives and our education on the assumption that there are as many realities as there are persons, and that our highest priority is to accept that hypothesis and proceed from there. Proceed where? Proceed, each of us, to explore open-mindedly the many, many perceptions of reality that exist. We would, I believe, enrich our own lives in the process. We would also become more able to cope with the reality in which each one of us exists, because, we would be aware of many more options. This might well be a life full of perplexity and difficult choices, demanding greater maturity, but it would be an exciting and adventurous life.

The question may well be raised, however, whether we could have a community or a society based on this hypothesis of multiple realities. Might not such a community be a completely individualistic anarchy? That is not my opinion. Suppose my grudging tolerance of your separate world view became a full acceptance of you and your right to have such a view. Suppose that instead of shutting out the realities of others as absurd or dangerous or heretical or stupid, I was willing to explore and learn about those realities? Suppose you were willing to do the same. What would be the social result? I think that our society would be based not on a blind commitment to a cause or creed or view of reality, but on a common commitment to each other as rightfully separate persons, with separate realities. The natural human tendency to care for another would no longer be “I care for you because you are the same as I,” but instead “I prize and treasure you because you are different from me.”

First, I think Rogers moves too quickly from epistemology to metaphysics. I agree with his assessment of the human condition in so far as we are able to know reality, but I’m not sure this means what he takes it to mean concerning whether or not there is a reality.

Second, I think Rogers is too idealistic. I share his desire for a world of peace and tolerance, but I’m not sure its attainable by the human means he outlines.

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Published by Alex

I am a youth pastor, consultant, and blogger. I have an M.Div. at Yale University and a BA in Philosophy and Theology from Southeastern Bible College. I love teaching and writing about theology, philosophy, politics, psychology, music, technology, and more! View all posts by Alex

3 thoughts on “Thought Experiment: Carl Rogers and Post-Modernism”

Dear Alex. Very interesting snipped. I would say JUNG’S theories have fired up (my) imagination towards philosophy more as compared to the overt humanism of Carl Rogers although there are some similarities here. Having said that, I do like this text, but I disagree with some assertions based on my experience. I am not a philosopher, therefore I like to shoot from the hip empiric like in an association experiment.
What do I agree with?
I got married two times, therefore I came to the same conclusion there are many “real worlds” as spouses. Influenced by Jung, and by experience of living and working in “high context” and “low context cultures” led me to believe that those cultures provide (unconsciously but also consciously) different frames of reality. The ease of travel and communication means that realities become much more aware of each other. I do not want to go into politics, but that indeed creates (sometimes even violent) interdependencies. Individuals who deviated in their perception of a religious reality are tortured and killed -today-, as Huntington predicted in his Clash of Civilizations.

What do you disagree with?
However, when I drive through my city it occurred to me that almost all people I meet share the same concept of traffic lights and “real world”. Otherwise I would be dead. We still share common values in one cultural frame, however extreme individualization in the West points the direction Rogers describes.

Where is Rogers right on Money?
I this question reflects to the “gospel of more is better”. He is only partially right. We have today (in Europe) a problem of “under population”, “over individualization” under spiritualization and to much value on money. A society based on this hypothesis of multiple realities might be a completely individualistic anarchy (or controlled state like in the Movie Matrix) – within a gated community for the rich.
His vision is indeed too idealistic.
I think, with all due respect, his vision of coexisting, open-mindedly multiple perceptions of reality, (which actually relate to different value systems) is naive. Yes, experiencing different cultures does give amazing insights. But I would not recommend it for, say Syria. A one-way ticket will do, it would be an exciting and adventurous short life.

One of Jung’ patients was the German Writer Herman Hesse (Glass Bead Game), he said this about multiple realities
“The things we see are the same things that are within us. There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.” ― Hermann Hesse, Demian

Jung was a contemporary of Freud but went a complete different way. All (watered down) psychological or cross-cultural trainings can be derived from his concepts, ambigious but practical. Self, Ego, Person, Shadow and Anima and collective archetypes fascinated me because the concepts can by applied on organisations and nations not only on people….